Patrimonio antes del patrimonio presents a critical reflection on the concept of cultural heritage and its association with archaeological practice in Mexico during the nineteenth century. The study asks what were the historical circumstances that facilitated the development of a set of uniquely conceived relationships between emerging comprehensions of Mexican antiquity and a nascent scientific discipline in these contexts? To address this query, three key processes are considered: the foundation and institutionalization of the incipient Mexican nation-state; the formation of new visual and semantic conceptions surrounding the material objects of the past; and the development of academic fields for their study.

‘Patrimonialist thought’ is proposed as a category for the analysis. This elucidates two fundamental transformations, derived from Enlightenment-era thinking, surrounding the conception of the antiquities and monuments of the past: first, the generation and consolidation of novel linguistic frameworks, values, and methods to mediate the study of such objects; and second, the constitution of bases that legitimized the physical and ideological appropriation of the national – and pre-Hispanic – past by diverse social actors and groups. This perspective permits a deeper appreciation of the historical contexts that allowed individuals and institutions to produce and reproduce both conceptual categories and knowledge linked to Mexican history, both in the burgeoning nation and in other centres of power and influence.

This book critically confronts the “natural” discourses – focused on the monumentalization of characters, names, things, and places – that make up the ‘official history’ of the relationship between Mexican archaeological practice and cultural heritage.